Countd0wn

Chapter 14: In the Mind's Eye

When I woke up, I was back in my cell. That's when the emotions of what had happened hit me. I had been captured, tortured, and been made into some kind of lab rat...and for all I knew, Ivy could be going through the same thing. As this thought crossed my mind, I imagined her in a cell like this, with sensor and needles strapped all over her, and I knelt against the wall, and began to feel tears stream down my face.

Some time passed. I don't know how much, seeing as how I didn't have anything to tell it off of. But I knew that every minute was torture. The room seemed to be cold like a refrigerator constantly, making my hairs stand on end, and my toes go numb. All I could do was sit on the metal slab that was my bed, and rub my arms for warmth.

Once, a small metal slot opened up at the foot of the door, yet another thing that had been hidden, and on it was a small covered plate of what looked like an oatmeal-like substance. Normally, that would look about as appetizing as cow dung to me, but since the apocalypse had come, I had learned to respect any food that came my way.

I walked over to the tray, and began to eat the slop. It was bland and wet, but at least had nutrients, and my stomach began to cramp less after eating it, as well as managing to warm up my whole body. I had soon managed to scarf the whole thing down.

After placing the dish back on the tray, I pushed it over to the door. I was going to test something that I had originally guessed when I was being "interviewed" by Mossberg. Then, a few minutes later, the slot opened again, and the tray was pulled out. 

It was just as I had thought. When Mossberg had been talking to me, she acted like she could hear my every thought. When I had been placing the tray down, I had focused on it hard, and made sure to project a mental image in my head. I had looked around the room, and saw no possible way that they could be watching me, at least none that I could see. But I knew that this was how.

There was someone in this facility, or laboratory, wherever I was, that could read other people's minds. Mossberg had said that they captured and looked for other people like me. Maybe she was using one of them for her own needs. I wondered if they were going to do that to me. Turn me into one of their own soldiers.

Then, as I was trying to think more about it, I began to feel dizzy. It wasn't the same pain that I had felt earlier when they had transported me to see Mossberg, but it was instead more dizzy and numbing. I began to feel very tired, then began to understand. The food wasn't just for nutrients. It had tranquilizers in it. This was my last thought before I blacked out.

I was walking in a field. There was fog all around me, and I could see nothing but dead stalks of corn in every direction. It was strange. I felt like I was floating, but I could tell that I was walking, and I also felt like I wasn't breathing, almost like I didn't need to. 

Then, I felt something shift in the air, like something had just suddenly come into existence. I saw that it was a red, rusted truck. It's tires were melted, like they had been set on fire. Suddenly, I knew why I was here. 

I put my hands over my mouth, trying to look away from the wreck, but found that I couldn't. Then, the smell began to waft towards me in the air. The smell of smoke and burnt hair...along with the smell that reminded me of a barbecue...

"No...no no please no...I don't want to see this please..." I called out to the air, even though I knew no one was around me. It was just a dream, I had already figured that out by now...but I felt like it was real...like whatever was in there could hurt me...it already was. I could feel the screams echoing in my mind once again...they never stopped.